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[401]
So they now left these towers of themselves, or rather they were
ejected out of them by God himself, and fled immediately to that valley
which was under Siloam, where they again recovered themselves out of the
dread they were in for a while, and ran violently against that part of
the Roman wall which lay on that side; but as their courage was too much
depressed to make their attacks with sufficient force, and their power
was now broken with fear and affliction, they were repulsed by the guards,
and dispersing themselves at distances from each other, went down into
the subterranean caverns. So the Romans being now become masters of the
walls, they both placed their ensigns upon the towers, and made joyful
acclamations for the victory they had gained, as having found the end of
this war much lighter than its beginning; for when they had gotten upon
the last wall, without any bloodshed, they could hardly believe what they
found to be true; but seeing nobody to oppose them, they stood in doubt
what such an unusual solitude could mean. But when they went in numbers
into the lanes of the city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom
they overtook without and set fire to the houses whither the Jews were
fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great many of the
rest; and when they were come to the houses to plunder them, they found
in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses,
that is, of such as died by the famine; they then stood in a horror at
this sight, and went out without touching any thing. But although they
had this commiseration for such as were destroyed in that manner, yet had
they not the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one
through whom they met with, and obstructed the very lanes with their dead
bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed
that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood.
And truly so it happened, that though the slayers left off at the evening,
yet did the fire greatly prevail in the night; and as all was burning,
came that eighth day of the month Gorpieus [Elul] upon Jerusalem, a city
that had been liable to so many miseries during this siege, that, had it
always enjoyed as much happiness from its first foundation, it would certainly
have been the envy of the world. Nor did it on any other account so much
deserve these sore misfortunes, as by producing such a generation of men
as were the occasions of this its overthrow.

1 WHAT INJUNCTIONS CAESAR GAVE WHEN HE WAS COME WITHIN THE
CITY. THE NUMBER OF THE CAPTIVES AND OF THOSE THAT PERISHED IN THE SIEGE;
AS ALSO CONCERNING THOSE THAT HAD ESCAPED INTO THE SUBTERRANEAN CAVERNS,
AMONG WHOM WERE THE TYRANTS SIMON AND JOHN THEMSELVES.

Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.

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